9TimeZones.com -
Frequently-Asked
Questions
1.
What the heck is this site?
Congratulations!
You've reached the cyberspace dimension of a
softcover/hardback book entitled: 9TimeZones.com -
an eMail screenplay collaboration between Hungary and L.A.
(includes first draft script The Fall In Budapest).
The main web address contains
purchasing information, along with one-click navigation for the rest
of this site. All Internet locations mentioned in the book's text have been
hyperlinked for your convenience, and the
latest news will always be posted on our updates
page.
2.
What's the book about?
This
project has been described as "the digital analogue to
Griffin &
Sabine" and "a synergistic
84, Charing
Cross Road for the third millennium's
cyber-age." But we should let the
Prologue
speak for itself...
3.
Is this title carried by my local bookstore?
The
9TimeZones.com distribution area has been designed
to increase in stages. Since this project was conceived in
cyberspace, it seemed natural to organize the website as a
primary source, so that Internet
users would have advanced access. Then, during the initial phase of our
real-world rollout, folks will be able to request this book at their nearest
Borders or Barnes & Noble store. Eventually, of course, it'll be
sold everywhere.
4.
Why'd you choose self-publishing?
In
the spring of 1999, we read an eye-opening article
which investigated the relatively recent phenomenon of
On-Demand
Printing (other perspectives appear in
Time,
Newsweek,
AP,
NY,
PW,
ZDNN,
Wired,
CNET,
TIS
and the WSJ).
With this new level of technology, the author's investment
is very low, and his/her title will stay in print for the life
of the publishing company (and its successors), which is normally
much longer than a typical book's 6- to 18-month availability
window.
So we selected a publisher (Xlibris),
and 9TimeZones.com appeared
at summer's end!
5.
Has this type of thing been done by any writers I might
recognize?
We've
unearthed a few interesting facts about other so-called "vanity" books,
revealing that these authors all paid for the publication of their first
works: Ernest Hemingway; Edgar Allan Poe; Rudyard Kipling; George Bernard
Shaw; Thomas Hardy; Alfred, Lord Tennyson; Nathaniel Hawthorne;
Henry David Thoreau; Walt Whitman; Percy Bysshe Shelley; Lord Byron;
Elizabeth Barrett Browning; Stephen Crane; Alexander Pope; Ezra Pound;
T.S. Eliot; Willa Cather; Rod McKuen.
John
Bartlett financed the initial three editions of
Familiar
Quotations. William Strunk Jr. issued
The
Elements of Style privately, and it was rediscovered
some years later by his former student, E.B. White.
Commercial publishers in the late 1800's rejected
Robert's
Rules of Order, so author Henry Martyn Robert went ahead on
his own, and the various editions have sold over a million and a half
copies.
James Redfield self-published a 3000-unit first run of
The
Celestine Prophecy and peddled the books out of his
automobile trunk, until Warner Books bought the rights,
making it into a New York Times best-seller.
Even though Edward Fitzgerald brought out
The
Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam at his own expense, millions of
copies have been purchased, and it continues to sell briskly. Marcel
Proust paid to publish the first 1500 pages of his masterpiece,
Remembrance
of Things Past, and Leo Tolstoy advanced
4500 rubles ($12,700) for the printing of
War
and Peace.
Of
course, none of the above facts will guarantee success for any
given title. However, if the rejection slips from agents and publishers
are getting you down, this idea's definitely worth exploring.
Empower yourself with some appropriate tools (like Dan Poynter's
The
Self-Publishing Manual) to get the lay of the land, and we'll
all be reading YOUR book in a few months!
[Establishing
a web presence is equally easy, as shown by this
homesteading
resource.]
6.
How did you promote the book?
Press releases,
informational postings, galley proofs, and/or books were distributed to
TV programs (A;
B;
C;
D;
E;
F;
G),
on-line media (a;
b;
c;
d;
e;
f;
g;
h;
i;
j;
k),
Internet workshops (W;
X;
Y;
Z), magazines
(n;
o;
p;
q;
r;
s;
t;
u;
v;
w;
x;
y;
z),
newspapers (1;
2;
3;
4;
5;
6;
7),
listservs/newsgroups,
and a few
competitions.
Later, book-signing and/or lecture events were
scheduled at the local Borders and Barnes & Noble
outlets.
7. Where's
PitchLink?
You've found it! This is a
resource area for writers who plan to submit material online. Caveat
Lector (no endorsements implied)... and a big tip of the hat to those
workshop members
who shared their bookmarks. A few fee-charging sites are listed
in the Other section, but they all have free trial periods,
according to the latest info. If you've personally interacted with a
reputable website which solicits scripts via cyberspace, or if you
have an update for this compilation, please post it in the
guestbook.
Prodco-related:
Affleck/Damon,
Coppola,
Done Deal,
Hollywood Creative
Directory, In Hollywood,
Mike's,
TMe,
Boz,
Brody,
Codikow,
Kingman,
Kushner-Locke,
Licht/Mueller,
Redeemable,
Thompson,
Tisch/Black &
Blu, Woofenill,
Zide. Agency-related:
Preditors &
Editors, WGA signatories,
Ad Lib,
AEI,
Cedar Grove,
Douroux,
First Look,
Gallagher,
Smith,
Wright. Other:
Contests,
Academy Writers Clinic,
Ain't It Cool News,
Corona,
Goodstory,
MovieShares,
Scriptiverse,
ScriptNet,
Spec Script Library,
Wordplay,
Writers' Script
Network.
8.
Do you know of any Virtual Theaters?
Sure,
hop aboard the ol' broadbandwagon (again, no endorsements implied):
120seconds.com (CBC),
AFFP,
Alternative Cinema,
alwaysI.com,
AlwaysonTV.com,
Anima Mundi,
AntEye,
Atom-Bomb.com,
AtomFilms,
Badcop,
BeachBlanket.com,
Bijou Cafe,
BroadcastMovie.com,
CameraPlanet.com,
Camp Chaos,
CinemaElectric.com,
CinemaNow (Trimark/Lions Gate),
Clickmovie.com,
Cloud 10,
CRAPtv,
Crushed Planet,
D.FILM,
DigitalCelluloid.com,
Distant Corners,
Doodie.com,
egomedia,
EI Cinema,
Entertaindom,
Eruptor,
eveo,
ezflix,
Film Deli, Nora Ephron's
filmfilm.com,
getoutthere.bt.com,
GIFilm CyberPlex,
Heavy.com,
Hitplay,
Honkworm,
Hypnotic.com,
icast.com (now offline),
Icebox (offline),
ifctv.com,
IFILM (backed by Microsoft co-founder
Paul Allen), iFUSE (home of
Adventure Men),
iLooks.com,
inetfilm.com,
Internet Box-Office,
JibJab,
LEVEL 13,
lightforce,
Live Music Channel,
Majestic Theatre,
media-match.com,
MediaTrip.com (partnered w/ex-Disney
chairman Joe Roth), Medium4.com,
Medium4Film.com,
MeTV.com,
microcinema,
MinuteMovies.com,
Mondo,
Monster Home
(first feature movie created for the Web),
MovieFlix,
MusicVision,
NetthisTV,
NicheTV.com,
Nouveaux Media,
New Venue,
Nibblebox,
Oddcast,
On2,
OnlineTV,
PitchTV,
POP.com (Spielberg's
failed venture, now fondly known as Pop-Goes-The-Weasel <g>),
Pseudo.com (also defunct),
Quantum Project v4.0
(Hollywood's first direct-to-Internet feature, at
SightSound),
ReelDV.com,
Reelscreen.com,
Screen47,
ShareYourWorld,
shockwave.com,
ShortBUZZ,
SilentFilmTV,
SingleReel (upload nearly anything),
SKYY films,
Slit Finger,
Spumco,
sputnik7.com,
Stay Tooned,
StreamSearch.com,
submedia tv,
The Bit Screen,
The Threshold Network,
theclaimmovie.com
(view Michael Winterbottom's rushes, rate the script, etc.),
Trailervision,
Undergroundfilm.com,
UnderGroundOpen,
Urban Entertainment
(Three Kings scribe John Ridley developed Undercover Brother
here, before Universal and Imagine paid $1M/$2M for the concept),
VOXXY.COM,
Wildbrain.com,
WireBreak,
XOOM's
Classic Movies, Z.com
(partnered w/producing heavyweight Jerry Bruckheimer) and Coppola's
Zoetrope Virtual Studio.
Also, the following might be of interest:
405
(3,000,000 viewers [and
counting] cannot be sneezed at, especially when the second-place movie has only
170,000),
Abrupt Edge,
Bambi Meets
Godzilla - complete,
burst.com contest,
Digital
Catapult Contest,
EB Insider,
FilmFest
List 1+2+3,
Hard Drinkin' Lincoln -
complete,
Leonardo DiCaprio Film Festival,
Napster Bad,
OnlineFilmFestival.com,
Prix Ars Electronica,
Spirit Of Christmas (South Park pilot),
Thank
You Mask Man - complete,
The Pixie Awards,
VideoFreak, the
Webby Awards and
WGA
Minimums.
9. Got
any online script sources?
Comin'
right up: a,
b,
c,
d,
e,
f,
g,
h and
i.
10. How about e-newsletters?
On
the cyber-grapevine, lots of writers feel the
WGA publication is a must-see, and
the Writers Script
Network seems to be developing into a good source of
submission info (often tracking down leads at listservs like
SCRNWRiT, and newsgroups:
m.w.s and such). I've heard the
scr(i)pt newsletter
sometimes carries a nugget or two, and other folks have recommended
NY Screenwriter
E-News,
MovieBytes,
Utopia,
Hollywood Pro and
Hollywood Lit
Sales.
11. Heard any good ones lately?
A
copy of our favorite showbiz joke is below; click the punch
line to hear Alan's voice, in a 10K .wav file:
The
screenwriter returns to a devastating scene: his home is a
smoking, burned-out ruin and his wife's sobbing that she forgot
to mail the insurance payment. The fire chief walks over and
gently breaks the news to the poor guy that all this happened
when his wife left the stove for just a moment to answer a call
from his agent. The stunned writer asks quizzically,
"My agent
called?"
12.
Hey, can I ask a question?
Absolutely, just post an entry
in the guestbook! Even
though our eMail response time is running several weeks behind (please forgive
us), we're burning the midnight oil to answer general inquiries on this
page.
<= Anikó J. Bartos
e (Scorpio)
&
Alan C. Baird
g (Capricorn)
=>
[bios]
© Alan C. Baird ·
Buzz · Links
· Updates ·
Home
